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Bergesen or Arrieta?

Side story to follow: Who will fill the 5th rotation spot? Brittany Ghiroli reports that it is most likely Bergesen, and all signs point to that. MacPhail said to the media that nothing could be announced since a corresponding move would have to be made the day of game for that pitcher’s first start.

With only 1 ER in 25 IP this year so far, Jake Arrieta has looked stellar for AAA Norfolk. The main issue with bringing him up is that the team does not want to go off the path of his planned out development. The O’s did bring up Tillman quite early last year, so I see no reason why they wouldn’t surprise us with another move like that this year. Bergesen, on the other hand, seems to be the guy they want up there now. It is not anything against Arietta, it is just that the team wants both guys to eventually be in the rotation, and since Bergesen is the guy who is already set in a rotation spot in the future, they want him to be able to fill his role as soon as possible. Arrieta, on the other hand, could use another month or two or brilliant starts at the minor league level in order to fully prepare him for battling the AL East, something with Bergesen already has experience with and would probably be the better option for instead of putting in the rookie for his first start against the Red Sox clutch lineup.

Bergesen did throw 7 innings of 2 hit ball for Norfolk this past Sunday, which was a positive start for him considering the way he was blown off his rocker in his first 3 starts for the O’s this year.

Other options include giving the ball to Berken or Hendrickson for the one or two time start, but I think the O’s would rather leave them in the bullpen where they have been fantastic and let the Bergesen issues work themselves out. We will see by this weekend what Mr. MacPhail decides to do!

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